Ideological foundation of the contemporary anti-gender movements in Poland

Anti-gender and anti-feminist movements are a relative novelty in Poland. Although they are based on solid foundations of Polish prejudices and patriarchal vision of family and gender regimes, it was around the early 2000s, thanks to international connections, when this approach developed, reinforced by some politicians, public figures, institutions. Together with the Catholic Church, which actively and directly contributed to the formation of public opinion and – being aware of their political power – catholic hierarchs influenced political decisions of all subsequent governments. This paper focuses on the ideological foundation of the contemporary anti-gender movements in Poland. By recreating the origins of the todays’ mobilisations, the paper will point out to the international transfers of ideology, knowledge, and practices of anti-gender movements. The paper takes a long durée approach (similar to ‘dynamic path-dependency’) to show key elements in the anti-gender rhetoric that allowed for mobilization and political influence. Around 2012, the term ‘gender ideology’ became a part of public discourse. The term became a sort of a pick lock key for the majority of the right, but - as with other key concepts on the contemporary right, such as ‘gender ideology’ – are unclear, blurry, and vague, which makes them more useful for the right-winger politicians. The rise of anti-genderism can be connected to an observable shift in the reasoning of the Polish far-right that took up the concept of ‘cultural Marxism’, which is strongly associated (by the far right) with ‘gender ideology’. Anti-genderism is often portrayed as part of the struggles against contemporary (and often imagined) Left. This shift can be observed among many far-right populist politics around the world, resulting in an enemy difficult to identify in more precise terms, but resulting in a perfect social scarecrow that allows to mobilise the masses. The international links (at least in discursive terms) are clearly visible. In The Wanderer Catholic newspaper article "The Frankfurt School: Conspiracy to Corrupt" (December 2008), Timothy Matthews said that the Frankfurt School was "Satan's work" and listed their eleven alleged culture-war aims, the majority of which could be used to justify an anti-gender or anti-feminist campaign in Poland: 1)Codification of hate crimes; 2)Causing constant social changes to provoke confusion; 3)Teaching children sex and homosexuality; 4)Weakening the authority of schools and teachers; 5)Mass immigration to destroy national identity; 6)Promoting alcoholism; 7)Reducing church attendance; 8)Weakening the legal system and causing it to be biased against crime victims; 9)Making people dependent on the state or welfare; 10)Controlling the media; 11)Encouraging family breakdown. The exception in the Polish case is the welfare system, as social transfers are highly promoted by Law and Justice, while the opposition to social welfare is a domain of Polish liberal opposition. The points “Codification of hate crimes” and “Weakening the legal system and causing it to be biased against crime victims” reveal one - slightly hidden - aspect of the anti-gender campaigns.